Medicine

Dr. Marty Makary, surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, says if medical error were a disease, it would be the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. Dangerous doctors, unnecessary procedures, surgical slips and other medical mistakes injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

What was health care like in early America, before and after the revolution? Elaine Breslaw, retired professor of history at Morgan State University, provides a fascinating and skin-crawling chronicle of the 18th Century -- the practitioners and their practices, from purging to pain relief, and the whole realm of alternatives to the infection-fighting medicine that was being developed in Europe. Breslaw, a visiting scholar at the University of Tennessee, is the author of “Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic: Health Care in Early America."

The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, is often described as the bloodiest day in American military history. The carnage is hard to imagine- thousands of men killed, tens of thousands more wounded. Many died because of poor medical treatment and disorganization.

The meningitis outbreak has turned into a major health scandal. A company based in Massachusetts shipped vials of steroids that may have been contaminated to doctors and medical facilities in 23 states, including Maryland. Health officials say 14,000 people were injected with the suspected steroid between May and September. About 1,500 of those patients were in Maryland. So far, more than 200 people in 14 states have been sickened,  and 15 have died, one of them in Maryland. Up front in this hour, a look at the meningitis outbreak and the type of pharmacy at the center of it.

This segment originally aired on June 8, 2011.

In the U. S., the majority of midwife-attended births take place in hospitals…but many people still associate midwives with births that take place outside the hospital—at home, or in a free-standing birth center.

Mucus serves as a barrier against bacteria--and it does a good job. To some degree, too good of a job. Because while it’s keeping the bad stuff out, it also keeps good stuff out, like drugs that can cure or prevent the diseases that do make it through. Now, scientists say they may have figured out a workaround.

Scientists may not be able to turn lead into gold… but they ARE now able to turn skin cells into brain cells.

And they say that discovery could be “science gold” for treating Parkinson’s disease.